Sadly, just like the ability to trust in God, gratitude does not come naturally. In both the 1st Reading and the Gospel, the two characters who came back to give thanks to God were both foreigners—one of them a Syrian and the other, a Samaritan. Why did they come back? The explanation may be found in being an outcast. Only when we are not entitled that we can better appreciate the graces that we have received. When we are accustomed to blessings unasked or unsolicited, it is easy to forget that everything is grace. Take a look at a child with everything. He can be callous with or indifferent to the gifts he has. Priests too. They receive so much that they can forget to be thankful.
What function does gratitude have apart from having good manners? To understand why gratitude is important, a distinction needs to be made between the feeling and the attitude. Feeling and being grateful are not always the same. We cannot control our feelings. They are instinctive or natural reactions to situations and circumstances. When cheated, it is unreasonable to expect a person to be cheerful about it. Feelings aside, we can choose to be grateful, no matter what the circumstance may be. In Dublin, I lived with a phlegmatic Polish Jesuit who had a ready but irritating response whenever someone complained about a problem. His answer was always, “It could be worse”. That quip possibly encapsulates an attitude we can have with regard to any situation which is bad. It sounds like a false or naïve positivity, but it is not. It merely states and recognises that a bad situation can in fact be worse which means we can be thankful or we can choose to be grateful. It is a frame of mind that helps us transcend.
As an attitude, gratitude can be better cultivated if we go beyond the idea of duty. To be dutiful is a good quality but it usually belongs to the discipline of obligation and if one were to describe duty as a kind of love, then it is a lower form. As a matter of fact, one can be dutiful even without loving. The many homes which house the elderly are good examples. Children are dutiful because the parents are safe in these care facilities but are seldom visited by those who so-called care for them. Duty can burdensome once we have tasted the freedom of spontaneity. Many will chafe when whenever a duty is imposed because by nature responsibility inhibits our freedom. “You want to” is very different from “You have to”.
To illustrate, the industry providing wedding fashion has no respect for the sanctity of the ceremony in Church. Sometimes, the bride’s wedding gown leaves little in the matter of imagination. Whereas the bridesmaids’ attire is also on the flighty and revealing side. The constant battle many parishes have with wedding garments is that they are quite inappropriate for a sacred rite. When it is insisted that the bride covers herself, there will be resentment and if the person is entitled, hell will break loose. Why? Because we have been habituated to operate on the basis of obligation and duty. Imposing a dress code as an honour to God is to reduce respect for Him to the bare minimum. It means that one dresses appropriately not because it is the proper act coming before the Lord and Saviour. One does so because one has been forced to.
A good development we have during this pandemic is that the Sunday obligation has not been restored. Technically, you can miss consecutive Sunday Masses and still do not need to confess the mortal[2] sin of missing Mass on holy days of obligation before receiving Holy Communion. Your attendance is a pleasant indication that we do not require a “forced” obligation to “compel” us to devoutly assist[3] at Mass. I appreciate it that you are here even though there is no obligation to do so.
It should not be duty or obligation that draws us to the Eucharist but gratitude that we have been saved. Gratitude recognises that the goodness of salvation cannot come from ourselves. When we are grateful, nothing is ever too much for us. If you survey our saints, many were saved sinners and they never forgot that they had been redeemed.
St Ignatius of Loyola, many a times found himself in tears as he celebrated Mass that he was worried for his eyesight. When Jesus accepted the invitation of Simon the Pharisee to eat in his house, a woman of ill-repute came and weeping, wet Jesus’ feet with her tears and she proceeded to wipe them with her hair. Kissing His feet, she anointed them with ointment. In response to Simon’s patronising attitude, Jesus concluded that she who had many of her sins forgiven could love much. Whereas he who was forgiven little, loved little.
The challenge is to ascent from merely being dutiful to radiating gratitude. Generally, I do not make comments about dressing in Church and not even when a bride’s gown is scanty. For some people, Church is a fashion parade. You all can attest to this especially during Christmas. The point is that people are not as wilful as they are “inexperienced”. A person who needs to flaunt or parade is someone who has not fully experienced the salvation of God.
Why have so many of us not experienced or know God’s salvation? The clue is found in the experiences of the two cured lepers. In times gone by there was an unmistakable correlation between sickness and sin. The former was considered the result of the latter.[4] The two lepers who were healed were grateful for the forgiveness of their sins. In an era of reduced culpability, we have reversed the order in which sickness is the cause of sin. When we no longer sin or cannot be responsible for sinning, then what is the healing for?
You observe this in some post-Christian countries where churches have been converted into spas. This is emblematic of our current state in which we go to Church not because we are sinners but because God is supposed to be there to make us feel good. If we are not careful, the Lamb of God, and by extension the Church, play the reduced role of merely taking away our stress rather than our sins. Apparently we are all immaculately conceived.
Without gratitude for redemption, it is not easy to return love for the grace of forgiveness. If everyone were grateful that he or she has been redeemed by the Son of God, we would not have habitual late comers for Mass. In fact, everyone will be rushing here to be in time for the God whom they love. Grateful for salvation, there will be no tension with wedding couples over their wedding wardrobe, their flowers arrangements, the shooting of confetti cannons or the choice of hymns.
The task ahead is not more rules or restrictions. Instead it is to increase the possibilities of experiencing that we have been saved by love. A way to foster this appreciation is to present the teaching of Christ through liturgy of His Church as well as through her architecture. Behaviour and buildings are effective expressions of the beauty of Christ’s salvation. More than that, it is to be captured by and directed to the Eucharist. As Saint Teresa of Calcutta said, “Once you understand the Eucharist, you can never leave the Church. Not because the Church will not allow you but because your heart will not let you”. This is a heart overflowing with gratitude that the salvation of Christ comes through eating His Body and drinking His Blood.
Does gratitude serve a function? Yes, it does. Secure in Christ’s salvation, nothing can ever disturb our interior peace. Teresa de Avila’s “Nada te turbe”[5] springs from this space of gratitude. So too St Paul in his letter to Timothy. He is not shaken by hardship because He is rooted in the salvation of Christ.
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[1] Another is a category in the Jesuit catalogue is “Praying for the Society”. To this category belong the elderly, the infirmed and the “useless” Jesuits. They may have outlived their usefulness but they can be effective “pray-ers” for the ongoing mission of their Jesuit companions.
[2] 1. It is a grave action. 2. There is full knowledge that it was seriously wrong. 3. Committing with complete consent of the will.
[3] To assist at Mass means to be an active participant and worshipper.
[4] In reality, it cannot be this way. Why? The Son of God suffered even though He was sinless. Suffering is not necessarily the result of sin.
[5] “Nada te turbe, nada te espante, quien a Dios tiene, nada le falta, nada te turbe, nada te espante, solo Dios basta”. (Nothing disturbs you. Nothing scares you. Whoever has God, lacks nothing. Nothing disturbs you. Nothing scares you. God alone is sufficient).
